How best to tackle failing schools is the subject of a transatlantic education conference getting under way in the United States.
Looking for answers to a common problem, the UK's School Standards Minister Estelle Morris has travelled to Washington DC at the invitation of the American Education Secretary, Richard Riley.
With her are a number of advisers, head teachers local education authority officials, and the chairman of the new General Teaching Council for England, former film producer Lord Puttnam.
Fresh start
"International comparisons are absolutely key - it means being brave enough to measure yourself against the best in the world. We want to learn from the best practice, wherever it is in the world," Estelle Morris told a press conference.
"In Washington they face similar problems of underachievement in areas of deprivation - and the anomaly of schools doing very well compared with other schools in similarly difficult circumstances
In England, the government has a policy of giving a "fresh start" to schools judged by inspectors to be failing their pupils, if they do not improve after two years of extra help.
This involves closing the school and giving it a new name, new head teacher and, typically, largely new teaching staff.
Although it has had some success it also has had some high profile failures, with new so-called "super heads" resigning.
President Clinton has directed local education officials in the US to close low-performing schools and reopen them under a new principal - a policy backed by the Democrat candidate to succeed him in November's election, Vice President Al Gore.
"If it's a failing school, shut it down," he said on Tuesday night in one of the most passionate exchanges in the first of his televised debates with his Republican opponent, Texas Governor George W Bush.
In stark contrast, Governor Bush has a scheme by which the parents of disadvantaged children in schools failing for three years would get $1,500 a year to use as "vouchers" for public or private education.
"Instead of continuing to subsidise failure the money would go to the parents," he said.
He also wants mandatory annual testing of children in state-funded schools.
They "must show us that children are learning to read and write and add and subtract," he said.
Testing was the cornerstone of reform in Texas, he added, with results published on the internet and parents encouraged to compare schools - which has now been the practice for years in the UK with the annual performance tables.
Charter for success?
Another, newer tack in England is to set up "city academies" - state-run schools set up with the financial backing of outside organisations such as churches, charities or businesses. The first few are due to start in a year's time.
In America, there are already more than 1,700 "charter schools" founded along similar lines. They get public funding but are free to operate as they wish, subject to meeting certain targets.
Private companies aiming to make a profit can also run public schools.
The Conservative Party's equivalent proposal for England is for what it calls "partner schools".
Bilingual education
The first day of the three-day conference is devoted to visiting schools in the Washington area, starting with Bell Multicultural Senior High School.
Bell Multicultural is remarkable for being one of the pioneers of "two-way bilingual" education in the US.
This means teaching children in a class half in English and half in another language. The idea is to develop the English skills of immigrant children but is also popular with English-speaking parents who want their children to be proficient in another modern language.
Although there are a range of second languages, including Japanese, Arabic and Russian, the vast majority of the dual-language teaching involves Spanish alongside English.
The US Education Department says that about three-quarters of the three million American students with limited English skills are Hispanics.
The scheme is deemed to be a success and is growing in popularity as a result.